2010 Troy Strawberry Festival

We are fortunate to have secured the Gas Pump Jockeys (see also their Facebook Page).  Join Ric Boals, Pat McLoughlin, Scott Langley, Kerry Patesel, Larry Reese and Rob Hard as they perform hits from the 60's and 70's.

Not as formal an event as some, the Queen's Tea is the first of the Queen's Pageant activities. While I'm sure it's stressful for the participants, it is a more intimate setting than many for the Chairman. I'm really looking forward to speaking to the ladies and their parents.

At least at this point, this is what I plan on saying.

A long standing tradition with the Troy Strawberry Festival is to host a Kick Off for the annual event in February. While a good deal of planning occurs before this event, this is essentially the opening event open to the public. The pre-festival events start up in March and carry on through the festival itself. It is also one of the first obligations of the incoming Festival General Chairman. David Geiger is the 2011 event General Chairman and hosted this year's Kick Off. From almost every perspective, this year's event went very well.

Welcome to the 2010 Troy Strawberry Festival!

I am excited to be the Chairman for this year's festival.  I'm also humbled. I have worked in a variety of volunteer roles through the years, but nothing compares to this. Our community is incredibly fortunate to have this kind of event. All of us benefit - some directly and many more indirectly. By design, our local clubs and organizations directly benefit. The communities they serve benefit indirectly - and that's all of us.

Sabra Johnson, Troy Strawberry Festival Festival Manager, has written up a press release for this week's Kick Off.  The Korean War Veteran salute is particularly worth reading.

Press Release

Each year the General Chairman of the Troy Strawberry Festival is asked to help put together the brochure for the event.  I am much more hands off than my predecessor, but I have written the Chairman's greeting for the brochure.  I think it's pretty good - short and sweet.

Every year at this time we select the chairman for the Troy Strawberry Festival two years out. This year's selection process unfolded like previous years: The two previous, current and upcoming festival chairs convene with the festival manager and review many candidates. This year's selection process was very challenging. We are blessed with many capable people on the committee - selecting a single individual from all of the potential chairs is challenging. Through a rigorous selection process we made our choice and secured the approval of the Festival board.

The Troy Strawberry Festival serves as a fund raiser for local civic organizations, but it can not succeed without the gracious sponsorship of local businesses.  In these difficult economic times, securing sponsors is challenging.  Sabra Johnson, the Festival Manager does a great job working with local companies.  As is the case each year, the General Chairman is asked to write a letter to the sponsors.  I feel pretty good about the following - but there's always room for improvement.

Saturday, October 4th, 2009, I received a call from Sabra Johnson.  She told me that Fred Daffner had suffered from a massive heart attack and had passed away.  I was driving to a game at the time and my first reaction was disbelief, followed closely by shock.  Now that I've read the article in the Troy Daily News, it is somehow real - it must be true, it's there in black and white.